Nutter was early on the scene at crash

A bicyclist was hurt when hit by a car on Martin Luther King Drive, and an aide to Mayor Nutter saw the crash and called the mayor, who was a few cars behind. Nutter "did what he could" for the man until help arrived. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

By Aubrey Whelan and Bob Warner, Inquirer Staff Writers

Posted: November 02, 2013

PHILADELPHIA The accident on Martin Luther King Drive on Thursday morning was nasty, involving two cars and a severely injured bicyclist.

But one of the first city employees on the scene was not a paramedic or a police officer. It was Mayor Nutter.

On her way to work Thursday morning, Lauren Walker, one of the mayor's aides, spotted the accident at the corner of Sweetbriar Drive and called her boss, mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said.

Nutter happened to be a few cars behind his assistant and called 911 when he got to the scene.

Police said a Ford Focus traveling west struck a 63-year-old man riding a bicycle in a crosswalk Thursday morning. The impact threw him against another car, police said.

He suffered a broken hip and two broken legs, police said. They said the driver of the Focus would not be charged with any offenses.

McDonald said the mayor "did what he could" for the man until emergency crews arrived.

"I don't know what happened. I don't know where he came from," Nutter told reporters Thursday afternoon at an unrelated briefing. "What I know is, we had a citizen down on the ground in the middle of MLK, and we needed to make sure he's all right."